Tag Archives: cacao

When it comes to raw sweets, things can be either superfancy or superfast. It’s up to you. So unless you dream of a three layered cake that needs to stay in the freezer for a while, have a look at these deserts ideas:

– cashews are the best: they’re fat&creamy and need no more than 4hrs to soak. in the photo above they stand as the base for a cinnamon cacao desert (with star fruit on top)

– dates too! i love dates not only for their perfect sweetness, but also because of their texture – they give just about the right firmness to the composition

– in case you don’t have any of these two, you can improvise with oats or other grains (it won’t be raw though). just soak them for a bit, then add honey/dried fruits, tahina, grated coconut and of course, your favorite flavors. drop any high expectations about the looks – it’s basically porridge style

There’s one drink that can make your mornings resemble the kind of treat you’d get in a fancy cafe. Except it doesn’t have any caffeine or milk. Yet everybody flips out as if they were drinking cappuccino or milkshake. I think that’s why I’ve ended up calling it energy drink.

To begin with, you have to prepare the nut milk – it can be made from almonds, walnuts, cashews and so on. Use sesame seeds as one third of the whole nut quantity, so you can add up to the calcium intake for the day. After soaking the nuts, rinse them well and drop them into the blender with fresh water. When they start turning into a watery cream, strain it by pouring the entire composition through a nut milk bag. If necessary, fold in more water. You’ll be left with the milk and the leftover pulp, suitable to use in further deserts. Why not prepare 1-1,5l of nut milk, store it in the fridge and have it at your disposal over the next few days?

Once you get the milk done, start adding into the blender one or more of the following ingredients:

bananas

dates/ raisins/ figs or honey

coconut cream

rose water / orange blossom water

fruits tea or masala chai

carob / cacao

ground cinnamon / vanilla/ cloves, etc

any kind of berries (fresh or frozen) – in this case better not mix it with banana or dried fruits

ground flax or hemp seeds

You’ll get a pretty thick consistency, but you can always dilute it to your taste.

With this kind of quantity you’ll enjoy full energy until lunchtime or even later!

There’s one great thing about this desert: you can make it from whatever comes handy. All you need to have is some presoaked nuts and dried fruits, the rest is just improvisation!

I gathered some of my favorite ingredients along with a few tips of how to mix it:

– if you are in a bit of a rush and you don’t have any presoaked nuts, go for those that require less hydrating time (cashews – 4h; sunflower seeds – 2-3h) instead of the ‘time consuming’ ones (almonds or walnuts – roughly 8h)

– extra fat is not necessary, but welcomed; especially when you’re using just the pulp (which is already fat depleted) instead of the whole nuts. go for a bit of coconut oil, cream or butter or, if you fancy chocolate, cacao butter. even tahini works out pretty well.

– dates or figs are the best to go with, but you can also use raisins, dried cranberries or plums. don’t forget to take out the pits 🙂 soak them for half an hour and strain; if you have a high power food processor, you might not need to do this, but consider rinsing simply to have them safe and hygienic

– mix these two base ingredients in the food processor – you should have more nuts than dried fruits or else the composition will turn out too sweet

– grated coconut is necessary as you’ll need something to eat up all the water from the soaked ingredients. otherwise the composition will be too sloppy and you won’t be able to mold it into balls. alternatively, you can use psyllium husks, a good source of dietary fiber which helps in providing a good transit, or plain oats

– now you have to decide on the flavor: you can have choco mint balls or lemony balls, rose water balls or cardamom cinnamon balls, black or white, pink or orange, and so on. just use your imagination!

– always take into consideration that whatever ingredient you might add, the final texture should be doughy enough for you to shape the balls.

– you can make it crunchy by rolling the energy balls over a combination of grated coconut and sesame or poppy seeds. moreover, you can save some roasted nuts and add them either into the mixture or on the surface